The early evening tragedy was seen by many people who all said the roof tiles gave way, causing Emily to slide and then fall on to the metal railings below.

At an inquest into her death at Reading Civic Centre yesterday, the court heard Emily had bipolar and borderline personality disorder. She also suffered with drug and alcohol addictions.

She turned to the church for help and in the six weeks before her death, moved in with John Kirtley and his family who she knew from LifeSpring Church, in Oxford Road.

Emily’s parents had died: her father Robert in 1992 and in October 2013, her mother Joanne died suddenly from a heart attack after they had only recently been reconciled.

Emily’s sister Carmen told the inquest she thought Mother’s Day on the Sunday before her death may have triggered her sister’s emotional behaviour.

In a statement Mr Kirtley said Emily was “withdrawn” on Mother’s Day and on the Monday was very confrontational with his wife. On the day she died Emily was in a “stroppy” mood and was making demands for alcohol, he said.

Mr Kirtley said Emily was close friends with Carlos Richards, who belonged to the Christ Abundant Life Ministries, so they decided to meet at his barber shop in Whitley Street.

Once there the group took part in prayer for Emily who by this time had drunk a small amount of vodka.

Berkshire Coroner Peter Bedford asked Mr Kirtley what he would say to suggestions this prayer was “some sort of exorcism”.

Mr Kirtley replied: “We prayed for her.”

Detective Sergeant Carl Bradford told the court there had been suggestions that intervention from the church was “over the top”.

He said his investigation revealed no evidence to support this and it was people’s own speculation.

After the prayer, there was a struggle with Emily over painkillers and concerns she had drunk bleach before she left the barbers.

Some time later, Mr Kirtley went to leave the shop and saw Emily on the roof of a building.

She fell at around 6.15pm and died at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading shortly before 7pm.

The inquest heard Emily had a history of self-harm.

In 2008 on the same date of her death, police found her sitting on the edge of Broad Street Mall in Reading self-harming with a razor.

On another occasion in May 2009, Emily climbed scaffolding next to a church holding a kitchen knife.

Mr Bedford said that it was important to note the similarities of these incidents with Emily’s death.

A toxicology report found that, at the time of her death, Emily had alcohol in her blood and a therapeutic level of pain relief.

A post mortem examination on Emily found the formal cause of her death was a hemothorax from aortic transection, a typical injury suffered by people who fall from a height with sudden deceleration.

Mr Bedford concluded Emily’s death was an accident.

“She did not jump or throw herself from the roof but rather slipped and did her utmost to save herself,” he said.

“Nothing in my view could or should have been done differently.”

Speaking after the inquest, Emily’s grandmother Amelia Cross, said her granddaughter’s relationship with her mother had broken down when Emily was a child.

Mrs Cross said Emily’s mother had suffered from mental health problems so her son Robert had taken Emily and her sister to live with him when they were a young age.

“It was sad the way it ended, but I think now perhaps she is in a better place, perhaps with her dad,” she added.